Numerous studies indicate that photonic crystals in butterfly wings exhibit advanced optical properties result of their highly interconnected gyroid microstructures, however, direct synthesizing artificial visible-wavelength polymeric photonic crystals is difficult.
In previous technology, one-dimensional lamellar amphiphilic block copolymers are usually used to fabricate photonic crystals. The lamellar amphiphilic block copolymer could be swollen by solvent to form a solvated photonic crystal exhibiting visible or near-infrared photonic bandgap. Nevertheless, the solvent evaporates in air continually and the solvated photonic crystal becomes solid. When the solvent evaporates completely, the photonic bandgap blue shifts to UV wavelength range. The lamellar photonic crystal loses structural colorations in the solid state so it is not applicable in solid-state optical apparatus used in air.